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BTC Brief
BUDGET & TAX CENTER

April 2018

ENJOY READING
GOING BACKWARDS: A growth in concentrated
THESE REPORTS? poverty signals increasing levels of economic and
Please consider
making a donation
racial segregation
to support the
Budget & Tax Center at By BRIAN KENNEDY II, PUBLIC POLICY FELLOW
www.ncjustice.org

E very day, families living in poverty face tremendous barriers placed in front of
them through no fault of their own. And every day, millions of North Carolinians
exude grit and resiliency and navigate those barriers. That tenacity, however,
comes at a steep cost. Research and experience has shown that living in persistent
poverty can cause a toll on individuals. In many cases, poverty is not isolated to an
MEDIA CONTACT: individual or single household, but affects entire neighborhoods and communities.
When families already struggling to
BRIAN KENNEDY make ends meet find themselves in
919/856-2153 communities of concentrated poverty, What is Concentrated
briank@ncjustice.org they face a “double burden.” Poverty?
This “double burden” limits economic Concentrated poverty is a
mobility and prosperity not just for those technical term researchers
experiencing poverty, but for every and advocates have used to
BUDGET & TAX CENTER
community member, and ultimately, for
a project of the describe neighborhoods and
the entire state.
communities where a high
north carolina
JUSTICE CENTER Concentrated poverty did not happen percentage of the residents live
naturally but was created out of policy below the federal poverty line.
P.O. Box 28068 choices — such as state-supported In most cases, concentrated
Raleigh, NC 27611-8068 discriminatory housing markets, poorly poverty, or an “extreme poverty
executed public housing projects, neighborhood,” is defined as a
www.ncjustice.org
interstate and highway projects made Census tract where the poverty
possible through eminent domain laws, rate is 40 percent or higher.
and a lack of investment in public
services — that have reinforced barriers. Another way of understanding
concentrated poverty is by
North Carolinians living in concentrated
poverty neighborhoods face unique measuring the proportion of
barriers. Often, residents are physically people who are experiencing
isolated from important resources poverty who also live in
such as jobs, access to wealth, quality concentrated-poverty
education, as well as access to valuable neighborhoods. This is called
social networks.1 Additionally, there are the concentrated poverty rate.
often environmental and geographical
barriers like elevated levels of air

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pollution and inferior public services.2 Researchers have found that when given the change to
move into economically diverse neighborhoods, people are less likely to experience negative
mental and physical health.3 Without intervention, many of these neighborhoods have faced
cyclical patterns of neglect, both historically and into the present. The suburbanization of jobs,
disinvestment of businesses, and general stigmatization have compounded the barriers to
private investment and economic mobility of residents.

Concentrated Poverty has grown significantly in recent years

Since 2000, the number of concentrated poverty neighborhoods, as well as the number of
North Carolinians living in those neighborhoods, has more than tripled. In 2000, there were
37 neighborhoods in North Carolina
where the poverty rate was 40 FIGURE 1: Census tract by poverty rate - NC
percent or higher, with 84,493 people
(1.1 percent of the total population) Year 0-19.9% 20-39.9% 40%+ TOTAL
living in those communities. In 2000 1,255 262 37 1,554
2016, there were more than
348,000 (3.6 percent of the total 80.8% 16.9% 2.4%
population) North Carolinians 2012-16 1,384 669 109 2,162
living in 109 concentrated-poverty
neighborhoods (See Appendix 64.0% 30.9% 5.0%
A).4 In that same time period, the
concentrated poverty rate — that Source: Author’s analysis of U.S. Census Bureau’s 2000 Census 2000 Summary
File 3 and American Community Survey, 2012-2016.
is the number of people in poverty
living in concentrated poverty
neighborhoods — has more than doubled from 4.1 to 10.2 percent.5 This points to national
and state trends of growing poverty as well as growing economic segregation.

Although the total number of North Carolinians living in concentrated poverty neighborhoods
has skyrocketed, certain groups have been disproportionally affected by this trend of
growing poverty and economic segregation. From 2012 to 2016, African American North
Carolinians were 71 percent more
likely than Latinx North Carolinians
FIGURE 2: Share of North Carolinians living in to live in concentrated-poverty
concentrated poverty neighborhoods neighborhoods and 434 percent
more likely than white North
Carolinians.6 Even when income is
not a factor, Black and brown North
Carolinians are more likely to live in
neighborhoods with concentrated
poverty. Between 2012 and 2016,
5.8 percent of poor white North
Carolinians lived in concentrated
poverty neighborhoods compared to
16.6 and 8.9 percent of poor African
Americans and Latinx, respectively.7

The change in concentrated

Source: Author’s analysis of U.S. Census Bureau’s 2000 Census 2000 Summary File 3 and poverty trends do not end there.
American Community Survey, 2012-2016. While African American North

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Carolinians are more likely to live
FIGURE 3: Concentrated Poverty Rate in concentrated poverty, the rate of
Latinx and white North Carolinians
living in concentrated poverty has
risen considerably. Since 2000, the
number of Latinx and whites living in
concentrated poverty neighborhoods
has increased by more than 900
and 400 percent, respectively.
Additionally, the concentrated
poverty rate among Latinx and whites
have risen by 370 and 211 percent,
respectively.8 What was once almost
exclusively a problem facing Black
North Carolinians is now impacting
non-Blacks at an increasing rate.
Source: Author’s analysis of U.S. Census Bureau’s 2000 Census 2000 Summary File 3
and American Community Survey, 2012-2016.
The final major change in
concentrated poverty is where it is
having an impact. Initially considered
FIGURE 4: Number of North Carolinians Living in
an urban-exclusive problem,
Concentrated Poverty Neighborhoods
concentrated poverty is affecting an
TOTAL BLACK LATINX WHITE increasing number of rural counties
and neighborhoods or areas (See
2000 84,493 59,276 4,171 18,133 Appendix B). In 2000, only 13
2012-16 348,696 179,623 44,210 101,705
concentrated poverty neighborhoods
were located in rural counties. By
Increase 313% 203% 960% 461% 2016, that number had grown to 45.9
As gentrification increasingly renders
Source: Author’s analysis of U.S. Census Bureau’s 2000 Census 2000 Summary File 3 and
American Community Survey, 2012-2016. cities unaffordable and a lack of
public transportation makes it difficult
to find and access job opportunities, more and more rural communities are experiencing high
rates of poverty.

Policy makers have the tools to address concentrated poverty

Just as policy choices have created the high levels of concentrated poverty we have today,
policy choices can help alleviate it. The first steps policymakers can make are to:
1. Boost the income of those working to earn poverty level wages. While many people
have returned back to work following the Great Recession, the typical worker earns
$1,130 less today than they did before the recession, after adjusting for inflation.10
Raising the minimum wage and ensuring that workers earn a living wage is one of
the first steps in reducing concentrated poverty.
2. Erase the physical barriers to accessing opportunity by improving transportation
networks and by locating services and programs in neighborhoods with
concentrated poverty.
3. Leaders must recognize the historic and continuous role of policy in driving
inequalities. In turn, they must protect and enforce anti-discriminatory policies
as well as proactively seek to advance racial equity through racially conscious
decision making.

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Appendix A

2000
Number of Number Of Residents
Appendix A
Concentrated Poverty In Those Concentrated Poverty
County Neighborhoods Neighborhoods
Cumberland 4 6,883
Durham 4 4,698
Forsyth 4 7,835
Mecklenburg 4 6,281
Pitt 3 17,145
Bumcombe 2 3,992
Lenoir 2 4,009
New Hanover 2 4,376
Wilson 2 4,137
Davidson 1 3,019
Edgecombe 1 319
Guilford 1 5,165
Nash 1 407
Onslow 1 1,082
Orange 1 3,200
Pasquotank 1 2,663
Robeson 1 6,043
Wake 1 2,827
Wayne 1 412
NC 37 84,493

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Appendix A (continued)
2016
Number of Number Of Residents
Concentrated Poverty In Those Concentrated Poverty
County Neighborhoods Neighborhoods
Forsyth 14 33,140
Guilford 12 42,056
Durham 8 25,175
Mecklenburg 8 19,620
New Hanover 6 19,528
Wake 6 17,746
Cumberland 5 11,365
Pitt 5 25,334
Robeson 5 17,903
Wilson 5 12,846
Lenior 4 8,070
Orange 3 9,789
Watauga 3 16,196
Craven 2 4,955
Henderson 2 4,496
Lee 2 6,727
Scotland 2 7,968
Wayne 2 6,915
Alamance 1 3,607
Bumcombe 1 2,934
Columbus 1 4,461
Davidson 1 2,519
Duplin 1 9,395
Edgecombe 1 6,084
Gaston 1 2,277
Halifax 1 3,141
Hoke 1 3,490
Iredell 1 4,280
Pasquotank 1 2,935
Richmond 1 2,843
Rutherford 1 4,726
Vance 1 3,707
Wilkes 1 2,468
NC 109 348,696

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Appendix B

2000

LEGEND
Insufficient data
< 19.89%
19.89% to 39.9%
> 39.9%

2016

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Appendix B (continued)

Charlotte
2000

LEGEND
Insufficient data
< 19.89%
19.89% to 39.9%
> 39.9%

Charlotte
2016

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Appendix B (continued)

Greensboro/Winston-Salem
2000

LEGEND
Insufficient data
< 19.89%
19.89% to 39.9%
> 39.9%
Greensboro/Winston-Salem
2016

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Appendix B (continued)

Raleigh-Durham
2000

LEGEND
Insufficient data
< 19.89%
19.89% to 39.9%
> 39.9%

Raleigh-Durham
2016

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Endnotes

1. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Understanding Neighborhood Effects on Concentrated Poverty. Winter 2011.
Retrieved from: https://www.huduser.gov/portal/periodicals/em/winter11/highlight2.html

2. Galster, George C. (2010). The Mechanism(s) of Neighborhood Effects, Theory, Evidence, and Policy Implications, ESRC Seminar,
St. Andrews University, Scotland, UK, 2010. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University.

3. Ludwig, Jens (2014). Moving to Opportunity: The Effects of Concentrated Poverty on the Poor. Washington, DC: Third Way. Retrieved
from: https://www.thirdway.org/report/moving-to-opportunity-the-effects-of-concentrated-poverty-on-the-poor

4. Author’s analysis of U.S. Census Bureau’s 2000 Census 2000 Summary File 3 and American Community Survey, 2012-2016.

5. Ibid.

6. Author’s analysis of U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, 2012-2016.

7. Ibid.

8. Author’s analysis of U.S. Census Bureau’s 2000 Census 2000 Summary File 3 and American Community Survey, 2012-2016.

9. Ibid.

10. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities analysis of U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, 2000-2016.

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